AnyQuestions offers free online schoolwork help to New Zealand school students. You can log on to the website from 1pm to 6pm weekdays during the school year and chat online with a friendly librarian about a schoolwork question.

AnyQuestions librarians are specially trained to help you find the answers you need, without giving you the answers of course! They will guide you to quality information sources and help you gain the skills to do future searches yourself.

AnyQuestions will work with any internet enabled device, such as a computer, tablet or a smartphone. AnyQuestions does look a bit different on different devices but you’re still talking to a librarian, somewhere in New Zealand.

The site is backed by the Ministry of Education and is staffed by librarians from Wellington City Libraries and other libraries around New Zealand.

For the first time ever New Zealand is joining with Australia for an international storytime. Hickory Dickory Dash by Tony Wilson will be read simultaneously -at the same time- across both countries.

You can join us and take part at Wellington Central, Johnsonville, or Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Libraries at 12.30pm on Wednesday 18th May.

At Wellington Central and Johnsonville Library events there will be a live video feed to libraries in Canberra in Australia -Cool! You will have the chance to wave and giggle with children in Canberra and ask them lots of questions. At 1pm Hickory Dickory Dash will be read aloud by a special guest reader, with the children in Canberra listening too.

Don’t miss out on this exciting historic event. All are welcome, bookings aren’t required.

Wellington City Libraries will be at the Space and Science Festival at Onslow College on 19th May. We will have all our robots and programmable toys there for you to have a go with, and lots of Lego! There will be mBots, Spheros, Dash, Ozobot and more. You can even say hello to one of our Nao Robots (and they will say hello back)!

There will be heaps of cool companies, scientists, and tech experts at the Space and Science festival, including a scientist and astronaut from NASA. Take a look at the full list and programme to find out more.

You get to be the engineer, architect, or scientist at your local library during the school holidays. Have a go at the latest programmable toys, gadgets and robots, and get creative with Lego and coding games. Open to all ability levels.

Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library: Tuesday 17th April, 10.30am

Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library: Wednesday 18th April, 10.30am

Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library: Thursday 19th April, 10.30am

Karori Library: Friday 20th April, 2.30pm

Johnsonville Library: Monday 23rd April. 2.30pm

Newtown Library: Tuesday 24th April, 10.30am

Khandallah Library: Thursday 26th April, 10.30am

Central Library: Friday 27th April, 10.30am

These free events are for children aged 6+ and run for 1 hour. No need to book – just turn up!

There are eight different robot and coding events happening across Wellington City Libraries during the school holidays. Contact your library to find out more. Follow the our Facebook page or check back on this blog for updates.

This week celebrates people and families in our communities. Not all families are made up of a mummy and a daddy – there are lots of different types of families out there, and the Pride Festival is for everyone to celebrate families in all their forms. These different families are often called Rainbow Families.

Would you like to find out more about rainbow families? Here’s some good books to start with:

This is about a young girl who has two mummies. Heather at first struggles with not having a daddy, and then she finds at playgroup that there are lots of different kinds of families. This is a book for younger children.

This is a story about 2 children who compare families. One comes from a traditional family and the other comes from a family with 2 blue dads and they try to figure out what the differences are with having 2 blue dads.

This is a true story about two male penguins in New York city zoo. They fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg.
Some people when they come from families that are different sometimes get teased or picked on for being different from others. Some people are picked on and teased because they seem different to us. I The next two books are about characters who are in that situation and how they triumph over it.

This is the story of a gentle Bull named Ferdinand who is forced to fight in the bull ring in Spain.

Event! Event! Event!

Celebrate Pride festival with us! There is a special storytime in Wellington Central Library celebrating Rainbow Families.

This special storytime event will be presented by the fabulous Drag Queen LaQuisha St Redfern and friends featuring books from our library collection. These Rainbow Storytime events help to teach children about acceptance with themes of family, love and friendship, being different and belonging, being unique and accepted and are for children, families and anyone who likes a good story!

Author Jonathan Harrison and Illustrator Jared Carson will be launching their latest book ‘A Cabbage in a Spider Web’ at Wellington Central Library (Children’s Area) on Friday 16th December at 1.30pm.

A Cabbage in a Spider Web is a children’s book aimed at 3 to 6 year olds about a little girl named Annabella and her outings and activities with her friends, her family, her pre-school, and her cat.

Each topic is covered in poem form with fun and colourful illustrations. With about 6 verses to each poem in words easily understood by children, this book is designed to be read to children by Mummy, Daddy or a pre-school teacher. There’s a little bit of naughtiness in some of the poems that will make children laugh… and also the adults.

Written by Otaki locals Jonathan Harrison and illustrated by Jared Carson, A Cabbage in a Spider Web is loosely set in Waikanae with a little research done at Castle Kids Pioneers pre-school for 4 year olds.

Bring yourselves along to the launch of this lovely local book that is sure to delight and entertain. Jonathan and Jared will entertain youby reading aloud and illustrating for 20-30 minutes, followed by discussion and QnA with interested adults. Book signing and cash book sales will be available following the launch.

You’ll be excited to hear that the annual children’s Summer Reading Challenge is on again this year! It starts on 1st December 2016, and finishes on 31st January 2017 – that’s 2 months of reading, reviewing and winning prizes.

The Challenge is open to all 5-12 year olds with their own library card. It’s free to do, and you don’t have to register.

Keep your eyes peeled for more announcements about the Challenge. We’ll be posting information here and on our Kids’ home page.

You’ll be able to pick up a Summer Reading Challenge booklet from our libraries from later November onwards, or print from our website. Inside the booklet is the Challenge booklist.

Your mission over December and January is to read and review as many titles from the booklist as you can. Each review will earn you rewards, and will also gain you an entry into the main prize draw (Which is drawn in the first week of February).